Thank Christ For The Bomb - Groundhogs

This cheerful little ditty's a track of two halves. The first bit's a little folky and then, at around 4 minutes 30 seconds, it starts to rock harder than granite. One to play loud when the neighbours are out...unless you don't like your neighbours...in which case, crack on.   

Let’s Rock Exeter RIP

Yet another festival bites the dust. This time it’s a local one to us, Let’s Rock Exeter, which has been held at Powderham Castle for the past decade or so. We’d been to the last seven and saw some great acts but the last couple of years it was clear that the organisers were struggling. Fewer bands, higher ticket prices, outrageous prices at the bar (which also went cashless…a bit of a problem for me as I only use cash) and far too much ‘filler’…a two-hour DJ ‘battle’ ain’t entertainment in my book…and ever more stupid rules about what you could bring in to the site, all took the shine off the day. With independent venues all struggling to survive too the future of the live music scene looks pretty dire right now, unless you’re Taylor Swift and her ilk who’ll no doubt carry on playing bigger and bigger stadiums until, eventually, the whole of Manchester will just be one bloody massive arena. What’s the cause of it all? Rising costs, endless spools of red tape, a lack of enough truly great new bands, far too many ‘channels’ diluting the audience (meaning that fewer people get to know about the acts that really matter, think back to when there were just a few TV and radio stations, even your gran will have known who Joy Division were…maybe) and, quite possibly, a growing number of people who simply can’t be bothered to get off their wobbly arses to go to anything anymore. What’s the answer? There isn’t one. Get out and watch stuff while you still can, otherwise before long most of what’s left of the live music scene will be as dead as variety theatre. What’s that I hear you say? Exactly.

PS: Just a final thought. How do The Levellers make Beautiful Days viable every year? No sponsorship, no corporate bullshit, proper cider at £5.50 a pint, decent bands, clean(ish) toilets…and you can take your own food and booze in too. Surprise, surprise, it sells out every year as well. Other festival organisers take note.

Struggle Buggie - Buddy Moss

Picked up some Blues CDs at the weekend, gave one of them a spin last night and this track hit the spot, despite (or maybe because of) being a mere 85 years old. As the very informative booklet pointed out, the guitar solo sounds pretty modern for such a vintage track...Buddy brilliant. 

Destination Unknown - Missing Persons

 A new (to me at least) band from the 80s to end the week. Cheers to John Grant for the tip!

Monkey - Kid Creole and the Coconuts

There are some who maintain that we've evolved from monkeys, but I reckon we've regressed. We work until we drop just to pay the bills (or at least some of us do, but that's obviously a bit of a hot potato right now) and they sit in trees in the jungle eating bananas, getting it on with other monkeys and having the odd scratch. Clearly Kid Creole shares this point of view as this jolly little ditty proves. All gorilla, no filler.

Mess Around - Dr John

Is this the best version of Mess Around ever? Yes. Yes it is. Brings back fond memories of sharing M&S crudites and a little bourbon with Dr John backstage after a gig at the Alex Theatre in Brum waaaaaaaaaaaaay back. 

Body Language - Ezra Collective

Another instant classic from Ezra Collective whipping up a cool Afro Latin vibe with a distinct dash of prime era Stevie Wonder thrown in for good measure. The weekend has landed. 

RIP Stedman Pearson

For a brief period in the mid 80s Five Star released some great pop songs, notching up four top 20 albums and 15 top 40 singles with six of these reaching the top 10 (in the days when that really meant something). The band's Icarus like downfall was sad to see and now one of the two brothers in the band, Stedman, has passed away at 60 years old. I was going to say 'just' 60 years old but I guess 60 isn't a bad innings, especially if you've sold a few million records along the way... 

New York State of Mind - Diane Schuur

How's this for a smoooooooooooooooooooooooooooth cover of the Billy Joel classic eh? Took a punt on the album for 20p last weekend...yes, I know, splashing out again...and it's well worth a spin. 

Roy Ayers RIP

Sad to hear that Roy Ayers has gone up to play that great vibraphone in the sky, but he's left us with some absolute classics...

I was lucky enough to see him play live at Moseley Jazz Funk and Soul a few years back (2015 apparently, good grief time flies) and yes, he did do this track...

Love You - Syd Barrett

Picked up remastered editions (on CD of course, it's the future) of all of Syd Barrett's solo albums...that'll be both of 'em then...at the weekend and noticed that I and they share a birth year, 1970. Syd seemed to have been a busy boy in 1970, so much so that he pretty much vanished from view for the rest of his life. Opinion seems to be a little divided on the reasons behind this but his slim solo output's well worth a listen if you're a fan of whimsical psych/folk/rock/whatever the hell genre this is.